Tranfronterizos' socialization into mathematical discourse: capitalizing on language and cultural resources or caught between conflicting ideologies?

Abstract

Studies of transfronterizos have highlighted the potential ways in which these students might draw on their linguistic, cultural, or knowledge capital on both sides of the border. However, because transfronterizos may cross borders to participate in institutional contexts, such as schooling, they can find themselves in the interstices of conflicting values and practices in institutions. For instance, discourse practices and ideologies might differ across institutional, national, or discourse borders. In this article, I situate the process of becoming socialized into a disciplinary discourse in the sociopolitical of the US–Mexico context to show how one student resists mathematical discourse and simultaneously constructs an identity in regard to this discourse. Through the case of Betty, a pre-service teacher, I show how contrasting ways of doing mathematics impact her socialization into mathematical discourse. I draw on Border Theory to demonstrate how Betty constructs an identity in the face of conflicting ideologies. Finally, I portray the ways in which she constructs an identity to position herself in regard to the discourse as knowledgeable while simultaneously resisting this discourse. Her agency is apparent in her use of mathematical discourse to mediate the construction of her identity.

Keywords:

• identity and agency
• academic discourse socialization in a second language
• mathematical discourse
• Border Theory
• transfronterizo students

Acknowledgements

This research was made possible by a University Research Initiative Grant funded by the State of Texas under the special Research Enhancement program.

Notes

1. Interviews were conducted in Spanish. Only the English translation is provided due to space constraints.